Page 4 - HOH

A2 UP FRONT
Friday 21 January 2022
Continued from Front the guidance applied to to prevent it. But it also has have this kind of mischief anniversary as CDC direc-
Speaking to the AP last children and why people been repeatedly criticized going on in the past," he tor, and the agency is still
week, she said she was didn't need to test nega- as timid and slow in a crisis. said. criticized as slow at times.
proud of what the agency tive before going back to Much of the problem has TOO SLOW For example, the CDC last
had accomplished in the their jobs. been lack of funding and Early in 2020, the CDC was week updated its website
past year. Her examples — The CDC briefly over- governmental authority, slow to send out test kits to to acknowledge N95 masks
included a torrent of CDC stated the omicron vari- said Shelley Hearne, a John help state labs identify the are more protective than
scientific reports, rapid ant's penetration in the Hopkins University profes- earliest coronavirus infec- other types and the better
identification of concern- U.S. In mid-December, the sor of health policy and tions. The agency's kits had choice for most people —
ing vaccine side effects agency estimated 73% of management. She noted, a design flaw and were something that has long
and quick research into the previous week's coro- for example, that the CDC contaminated. been obvious to scientists.
new variants. navirus infections were due can't require doctors or CDC officials were initially "So why has its guidance
Among her particular points to omicron. A week later, states to report disease focused on the risk of infec- come out late time & time
of pride: Last spring, the the CDC shaved it to 23%, case counts or other vital tions spreading from China again?" Lawrence Gostin,
CDC was quick to investi- based on additional data. information. and were slow to under- a Georgetown University
gate and report on rare (The CDC turned out to be Walensky is not going to stand how much corona- public health law expert,
but concerning side effects a week early: Omicron now change that, Hearne said. virus was coming from Eu- asked on Twitter.
in some vaccine recipients, reigns.) "If the pandemic has shown rope. On Wednesday, Biden
including an unusual blood — Last spring, Walen- anything, it's that we need The agency also was criti- defended the CDC, say-
clot in young women who sky said fully vaccinated to do an overhaul of how cized for being too slow ing: "The messages, to the
had received Johnson & people could stop wear- we protect our health," she to recommend people extent they've been con-
Johnson shots. The identi- ing masks in many settings, said. wear masks, to recognize fusing — it's because the
fication of about 15 cases only to reverse course as Compounding the prob- that the virus can spread scientists, they're learning
— out of more than 8 mil- the then-new delta variant lem is pressure on the CDC through the air and to more."
lion people who had got- spread. from both Republican and ramp up systematic testing TOO FAST
ten the vaccine — led the Walensky has many de- Democratic administra- to detect new variants. Public health experts note
government to pause the fenders. They say that in tions to speak in harmony In 2020, the Trump adminis- the fast-changing pan-
dispensing of J&J shots for most cases, core decisions with the White House. That's tration was accused of po- demic has forced the CDC
11 days. made sense at the time not new, but there is now litical interference for work- to reverse decisions that
"Everyone has said that dur- they were made. The real more second-guessing by ing to control CDC messag- made sense at one point
ing a pandemic, CDC has problem, they say, was with other scientists and pub- ing that might contradict but later became problem-
to move faster," she said. "I how they were rolled out lic health experts on social the White House's portrayal atic.
think we really did that." and communicated. media. of how the crisis was unfold- One example: For much of
Her efforts, though, have 'WE NEED TO DO AN OVER- And then there's the gener- ing. the pandemic, the CDC
sometimes gone awry: HAUL' al fracturing of the nation. Walensky, an infectious- had advised Americans to
— The agency's decision The CDC has long been Some politicians and oth- disease specialist known for wear masks when near oth-
late last month to shorten considered the crown ers have repeatedly under- her communications skills, ers. But last spring, Walensky
isolation and quarantine jewel of U.S. public health, mined the CDC's message, vowed to restore public changed the guidance,
caught many by surprise. with great minds working said Benjamin, of the Amer- trust under President Joe saying fully vaccinated
Public confusion included to investigate illness and ican Public Health Associa- Biden. people could stop cover-
questions such as whether coordinate national efforts tion. CDC directors "didn't This week marks Walensky's ing up in most settings. q

US researchers test pig-to-human transplant in donated body

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP this year. heats up. the pair of pig kidneys sur- The research was conduct-
Medical Writer "The organ shortage is in Twice this fall, surgeons at vived with no sign of imme- ed in September after Jim
Researchers on Thursday fact an unmitigated cri- New York University tem- diate rejection, her team Parsons, a 57-year-old Ala-
reported the latest in a sur- sis and we've never had a porarily attached a pig's reported Thursday in the bama man, was declared
prising string of experiments real solution to it," said Dr. kidney to blood vessels American Journal of Trans- brain-dead from a dirt bike
in the quest to save human Jayme Locke of the Univer- outside the body of a de- plantation. racing accident.
lives with organs from ge- sity of Alabama at Birming- ceased recipient to watch That was only one of sever- After hearing this kind of re-
netically modified pigs. ham, who led the newest them work. And earlier this al key findings. Locke said it search "had the potential
This time around, surgeons study and aims to begin a month, surgeons at the Uni- wasn't clear if delicate pig to save hundreds of thou-
in Alabama transplanted clinical trial of pig kidney versity of Maryland Medical kidney blood vessels could sands of lives, we knew
a pig's kidneys into a brain- transplants. Center gave a dying man withstand the pounding without a doubt that that
dead man — a step-by- Similar experiments have a heart from a gene-edited force of human blood pres- was something that Jim
step rehearsal for an op- made headlines in recent pig that so far is keeping sure -- but they did. One kid- would have definitely put
eration they hope to try in months as research into an- him alive. ney was damaged during his seal of approval on,"
living patients possibly later imal-to-human transplants But scientists still needed to removal from the pig and said Julie O'Hara, Parsons'
learn more about how to didn't work properly but the ex-wife.
test such transplants with- other rapidly started pro- The need for another
out risking a patient's life. ducing urine as a kidney source of organs is huge:
With the help of a family should. No pig viruses were While more than 41,000
who donated a loved one's transmitted to the recipi- transplants were per-
body for science, Locke ent, and no pig cells were formed in the U.S. last
mimicked the way human found in his bloodstream. year, a record, more than
organ transplants are done But Locke said the kidney 100,000 people remain on
— from removing the pig experiment could have the national waiting list.
"donor" kidneys to sewing more far-reaching impact Thousands die every year
them inside the deceased -- because it shows that a before getting an organ
man's abdomen. brain-dead body can be and thousands more never
For a little over three days, a much-needed human even get added to the list,
until the man's body was model to test potential new considered too much of a
removed from life support, medical treatments. long shot.q